November 21, 2001

SPRINGFIELD, IL. – North Plaza Nursing Center in Decatur has been fined $5,000 (statement of violation) by the Illinois Department of Public Health for failure to provide adequate supervision to protect residents from abuse by another resident. The 131-bed intermediate and sheltered care facility is located at 438 W. North St.

Responding to a complaint, Department surveyors learned a male resident with a history of sexual aggression had, on several occasions, lifted the shirts of female residents and engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior.

On one occasion, the resident was observed holding a female resident against the wall with her shirt pulled up. An employee who witnessed the incident took the female resident away but, upon her return, the male resident was doing the same thing to another resident. Again, the employee removed the female resident only to return and find the male resident doing the same thing to another resident.

The incidents were not reported to the physician, administrator or any of the families of the residents involved.

Staff had been instructed to monitor the resident, chart his behavior and try to redirect him to other activities, but no specific monitoring guidelines were instituted.

While the resident's care plan noted he made sexual advances and statements toward staff, it did not mention sexually inappropriate behavior toward residents. The charts of the three female residents who were molested contained no documentation of the incidents.

The Department-ordered plan of correction required the facility to provide adequate supervision and assistance to each resident; to assess aggressive residents in a timely manner and have procedures in place to deal with such residents; and to document abuses in residents' medical records.

North Plaza Nursing Center has requested a hearing on the Department's action. No hearing date has been set.